The field of metallurgy includes the processing of metal-containing ores to produce purified metals and chemical compounds thereof. One particular mode of such processing involves the conversion of metals in the ore to particular types of salts, such as, for example, chlorides, to produce a mixture of metallic chlorides.
The present invention is related particularly, but not by way of limitation, to methods of separating a mixture comprising metallic salts, especially metallic chlorides. The methods of the present invention further involve the abstraction of metallic salts into supercritical or near-supercritical fluids and selective retrograde condensation to separate and recover particular metal salts.